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Feb. 7, 1956 G. B. DOREY 2,733,669

DUMP DOOR WINDING AND LOCKING MECHANISM Filed Feb. 15, 1951 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 i INVENTOR.

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United States Patent DUMP DOOR WINDING AND LOCKING MECHANISM George B. Dorey, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, assignor to Enterprise Railway Equipment Company, Chicago, Elm, a corporation of Illinois Application February 15, 1951, Serial No. 211,137

2 Claims. (Cl. 105301) The invention relates to an improved door mechanism for dump cars of the type having a door hinged at one end and supported adjacent the swinging edge by a door operating shaft having linkage connecting the shaft and door for supporting the door in open position and wherein the linkage is arranged to wind on the shaft and thereafter provide for the latter to move in supporting position beneath the door.

The objects of the invention among others are to provide for operating an individual door by means of a swingingly mounted shaft arranged to lift the door and move bodily beneath the door; to provide improved seating means between a bodily movable shaft and a door to provide uniform and continuous bearing between the shaft and door during the transition of the shaft from one position to another; and to provide improved winding linkage mechanism between the door and operating shaft.

In the drawings forming a part of this specification:

I Figure 1 shows a vertical longitudinal elevation of a part of a railway car showing as much of the car as necessary to show one dumping door with the improved mechanism applied thereto;

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view taken on a line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view somewhat similar to Figure 2 except that the door is illustrated in open position and is taken on a line 33 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view similar to Figure 2 except that the shaft is shown as swung outwardly beyond the path of movement of the door and corresponds to a line 44 of Figure 1;

Figure 5 is a detached longitudinal elevational view on an enlarged scale of one of the winding hubs; and

Figure 6 is a vertical end view of the Winding hub shown in Figure 5 as viewed from left to right.

The present embodiment of this invention is shown as applied to a drop bottom car of a form well known in the art, cars of said type generally including a plurality of doors hinged to each side of the longitudinal center of the car and opening to a downwardly inclined position to discharge lading to the sides of the car. In the drawings only one of such doors is indicated on one side of the center sill.

The car as shown is provided with a center sill indicated at 10 having a top plate 11, crossbeams 12 of the underframe, crossbeam top plates at 13, side stakes 14 extending upwardly from the ends of the crossbeams and side walls indicated in this instance by a lower side chord angle 15 and side plates 16. The angle 15 includes a lower horizontally disposed wall 17 which connects with the crossbeam top plates 13 and the adjacent wall 18 of the angle extends upwardly and is secured to the side stakes 14 and side plates 16.

The side edges of the angle wall 17 in combination with the facing edges of the cros'sbeam top plates 13 and the adjacent edge of the center sill top plate 15 define the boundaries of a discharge opening 19.

Positioned to close the discharge opening 19 is a dump- 2,733,669 Patented Feb. 7, 1956 ing door 20 which is disposed to underlie the respective plates defining the discharge opening. Said door 20 pref= erably includes a body plate portion 21 reinforced along its front, rear and side edges by downwardly turned flanges indicated at 22, 23 and 24, respectively, and secured to the underside of the body are hinge beams 25 extending from the rear to the front edges and secured to said beams are hinge straps 26 which are each formed with an eye 27 to receive a hinge pivot 28 whereby the door is pivotally supported on hinge brackets 29, the latter being secured to the center sill 10.

The door 20 in its closed position is preferably horizontally disposed and is supported at its swinging edge by a shaft 30 having a square cross section which is rotatably supported in swinging hangers 31, the latter being pivotally mounted on pivots 32 carried by brackets 33 which in turn are secured to the car side walls. The brackets 33 include base wall 34 which receives attaching rivets 35 and extending outwardly from said base wall are vertically disposed spaced walls between which the swinging hangers 31 are disposed and form the support for the pivots 32.

The hanger supporting pivots 32 are mounted beyond the swinging edge of the door proper, as shown in Figure 2, and so positioned as to permit the hangers 31 to gravitate to a vertical position with the axis 36 of the shaft 30 directly beneath the said pivot 32 whereby a straight line 37 extending through the axis 36 of the shaft and passing through the axis of the pivot 32 will lie on a substantially vertical line when the door is in closed position, as will be explained.

The door 20 adjacent its swinging edge is reinforced by an angle member 38 having one flange secured to the outer depending flange 2 2 of the door and the adjacent flange 39 extends forwardly beyond the flange 22. Disposed in the angle formed by the flange 22 and flange 39 of the front door beam 38 are extension brackets 40 which include a beam portion 41 projecting forwardly to lie above the shaft 30 when the latter is biased to its normally closed position.

Disposed in alignment with the beam portions 41 are hubs 42 non-rotatably mounted on the shaft 30 and extending between each of said hubs 42 and its related aligned door bracket is a flexible connection 43.

There are preferably two connections 43 to each door 20 but, inasmuch as the construction is the same in each instance, the description and operation will be confined to one of said connections. The connection 43 is formed of a plurality of links movably united by means of rivets 44 and includes a pair of terminal end links 45-45 which straddle the projecting beam portion 41 and are pivotally united therewith by means of a rivet 46. The opposite ends of the terminal links 45 straddle a link 48 and are pivotally united therewith at 49 and said link in turn lies between a pair of links 50-50 and is pivotally united therewith at 51. The opposite ends of the links 50 straddle link 52 and are pivotally united therewith at 53 and said link 52 is extended within a pair of jaws 54-54 of the hub 42 and pivotally united therewith at 55.

The said links 45, 48, 50 and 52 are arranged to wind around the hub 42 which is formed with a drum section of polygonal form to present a plurality of faces, as shown in Figure 6, corresponding to the number of links, said faces being indicated at 56, 57, 58 and 59 respectively. The links are maintained in fixed radial relation to the axis of the shaft 30 by means of positioning cog projections 64) and 61 which respectively extend within the double linkage 45 and 50. The projecting beam portion 41 is formed with an arcuate shaped seat 62, Figure 3, which engages with a corresponding formed seating surface 63 formed on the hub 42 and said seats 62 and 63 are contoured to extend concentrically with respect to the axis 64" of the terminal 45of "the linkage; The-said" seat 63 is extended to merge? into the cog projection 60 andlthusflprovides for. an. extended areaof bearingarc contact-between the seating surfaces of'the door bracket 40. andhub 4 2respectively.

The. shaft 3.0,has, a..square cross-section and is rotatably mounted at its ends in the swinging hangers 31. Suitable operating. heads are provided at the ends of the shaft 30 for rotating it to openand close the door 20 as described in my copending application Serial No. 312,962, filed October 3, 1952, as a division of this application.

The-operation of the mechanism is as follows: assuming the parts'in locked positionas shown in Figure 1, the shaft; 30 -is rotated' and bodily moved outwardly to the position shown in Figure 4 after which the weight of the door 20 and lading,v moves it to fully opened position. During the initial unwinding operation of the shaft 3'3, the cogprojections- 6'0 serve to maintain the linkage in definite radial relation ,to the hub 42 and prevent fouling oftthe linkage should the lading and door be frozen as frequently occurs under extreme cold weather conditions.

The. raising-,of the doorsis a reverse of the releasing operation.

What is claimed as new is:

1. In a railway drop bottom car, in combination, a door pivotally mounted on said car along one edge to swing downwardly to open position, a shaft extending along the swinging edge of said door in its closed position, means on said car swingingly and rotatably mounting said shaft to move into supporting position beneath the door when the latter is closed and movable outwardly beyond the door to release the latter; a bracket having a projecting beam extension extending in the plane of the shaft when the doorisin closed position; a hub on the shaft; a linkage'connection between the door and hub and winding on the latter to raise the door, said connection having a ter- Cir 4 minal linkstructure including a pain oflinks straddling. the beam extension and pivoted thereto; and co-operating arcuately shaped seats on the extension and shaft hub, said arcuately shaped seats being formed concentrically with respect to the axis of the pivotal connection between the terminal link and beam extension, said seat on the hub being extended to lie between-the pair of terminal links and operate as a cog to maintainthe linkage in fixed radial relation to the hub.

2. In a railway drop bottom canin combination, a door pivotally mounted on said car' along. one edge to swing downwardly to open position, a shaft extending along the swinging edge of 'said:d'oor"in its closed positiommeans on said car swingingly and rotatably mounting said shaft to move into supporting positionbeneath" the door when the latter is closed and movable outwardly beyond the door to release the latter; a bracket having a projecting beam extension extending in the plane of the shaft'when tne door is in closed position; a hub onthe shaft; a linkage connection between the door and hub and'winding on the latter to raise the door, said connection having a terminal link structure including a pair of links straddling the'beam extension and pivoted thereto; and co-opcrating seats on the extension and shaft hub, said seat on the hub being extended to lie between the pair of terminal links and'operateas a cog to maintain the linkage in fixed radial relation to the hub.

References Cited in thefile of tbispatent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,587,470 Campbell June 1, 1926 1,611,931 Marshall Dec. 28, 1926 1,705,952 Zimmer g Mar. 19, 1929 1,818,688. Campbell Aug. 11, 1931 1,833,278 Cummins Nov. 24, 1931 2,407,912 Zimmer' Sept. 17, 1946 

